If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the forum FAQ and the House Rules and Forum Guidelines.
You will have to register before you can post. If you find your registration is rejected, please try again using a different username. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

This is another feature I will introduce now. With the release of my YP2012 and YP2013 youth products, it's time to create a 'Wall of Honour' to give recognition to those players to put on the Marauders shirt and made some very good contributions to the club. Without further ado, here are the inductions of Radford Sinclair and Anthony Baker. They both weren't the most flashiest players, and as we went up the divisions, their roles were diminished to the point I had to loan one of them out, but overall, without them, we wouldn't be in the USL-Pro East since 2018 without them.

Some might argue that the standards of entering this Wall of Honour must not be very high of someone of Radford Sinclair's caliber was inducted. Yes, he did not contribute at the USL-Pro East level, but he's the only one of my 2012 youth intake that managed to get this far with us. Remember, we have terrible facilities back in 2012, and to see how far Sinclair has worked to have a career with the Markham Marauders and play for 7 seasons is remarkable in itself. He was a big catalyst in leading us up the divisions and he will always be known as one of the pioneers in creating the initial history of the Markham Marauders into the club known today.

I always liked calling him 'Mr. Consistency' because when you played him, you knew what to expect of him, which was a solid performance and goals. Before his playing time was reduced to a part-time role, he scored in double digits from 2013 to 2017. As of the beginning of the 2019 season, he was the club's all time leader in appearances, and as of the end of the 2019 season, he's also the club's leader in goals scored. He scored goals at all levels that he participated in, and that's a big accomplishment for him. He wasn't the quickest or strongest, didn't have the best soccer IQ, or even had the best pure skills on the team, but in the end, he got the job done and the results speak for themselves. He has embarked on a new career path, to Gangneung City in the Korean N-League (2nd tier). He happens to be one of three Canadians on the team (one of the other two happens to be a former Markham Marauders youth who I didn't sign!) so hopefully he makes the most of the rest of his career in South Korea.

Really love the Wall of Honour idea Interesting the there are two players from the Marauders on the same team in the N-League now!

Cheers cerud. I thought of originally having a Hall of Fame, but I don't think Sinclair and Baker were that good to be Hall of Famers, so I settled on a Wall of Honour.

Hopefully there won't be anymore inductions for a while...because most of the core I'm not ready to give up on yet.

And there's actually 3 Canadians on that team, which you know after your 1.5 years of management there that there's only a max of 3 foreigners, so it's a bit strange since the entire coaching staff is purely Korean!

Nice to see a bit of nostalgia of CSE with the Nep thread style YP wall of honour. Anyone from the 2nd tier been promoted to the MLS yet? IIRC in all the updates you did none of them made it past the play-off with the bottom MLS side, should be very tough for you once you eventually get there if the same teams have been in the MLS the whole save!

Nice to see a bit of nostalgia of CSE with the Nep thread style YP wall of honour. Anyone from the 2nd tier been promoted to the MLS yet? IIRC in all the updates you did none of them made it past the play-off with the bottom MLS side, should be very tough for you once you eventually get there if the same teams have been in the MLS the whole save!

Cheers Paul, Nep's Youth Player thread was certainly thought about when I made my Wall of Honour. Pity the thread isn't as active as it used to be.

It'll be a while because we even get into the NASL because they don't have auto promotion and I have to win through playoffs! We still have some holes to fill in the squad though.

Originally Posted by SRL88

Looks like a canny game for the neutral .

Well, if we can turn the neutral fans into Markham Marauders, it can only be a good thing!

Originally Posted by cswalk08

Random question, has Dover moved up at all in your save? Markham promoted in the second year and turned semipro in my save.

Dover have stayed in the bottom half of the New England Premier League throughout my save. If I can pick a feeder club, it could be them, but I don't have that option yet.

Originally Posted by AK22

Giving your fans value for money!

Average ticket price is USD$6.40, so yes, it's very cheap entertainment for the residents of the Markham area. Cheaper than going bowling for a few hours actually when I was in Markham.

Standings | Past Positions | Fixtures - What a fantastic season that went down to the final game of the season, but we pulled through, and we'll be in the USL-Pro division, 3rd tier, next season.

North American Open Cup - A fantastic run in the Open Cup, getting to the 4th round, and facing MLS opposition in a competitive match for the first time, losing 3-2. We played the way I wanted them to play, Portland were just better.

Niksa Cotic (YP 2018) - I was expecting Cotic to make the step forward onto the bench on the senior squad but he didn't do that. He still has a lot of potential though so hopefully he can still become a squad player.

Resign Matheson and McCallum to fair multi-year contracts, otherwise one of them might have to be sold on

Become BFFs () with Mark Rajkovic so contract negotiations can be easier, since he represents 10 of my players now

We need defensive Youth Products. We have midfielders with talent and a good core of strikers. We really need additional help in the backline (Navin Simon keeps getting himself yellow cards, and we need a 'keeper)

Training and youth facilities could be better, we still have basic and minimal facilities respectively. $2 million should be enough...

Maybe the stadium could be expanded? We already packed over 2400 in the stadium on average every game...

Congrats on promotion! Should be a very interesting year in the USL-Pro.

Cheers cswalk. It would definitely be very interesting come the new season, but our key players give us some hope.

Originally Posted by AK22

Well done on another promotion! Good to see the new stadium being filled out already

Yes, I'm very pleased and hopefully as more fans come, there's room to expand!

Originally Posted by cerud

Congrats on promotion! One step below NASL now?

Yep, it's not an auto-promotion spot though!

Originally Posted by PaulHartman71

great job on promotion, should be interesting to see if you can survive especially with those 4 relegation spots

I'm interested as well. Staying injury-free will be the key. Like our first season in USL-Pro East, we might need a shift in tactics to play more rigidly, because surely we can't outscore the opposition to win in the 3rd tier this year, right?

Gilles Bourgault and Daniel Fath were offered youth contracts but they both betrayed. Fath joined a team in the St. Lawrence Soccer League. That's right, he turned down my youth contract offer from a tier 3 side for a team in the f****** 8th tier. Bourgault signed with a team in Louisiana in tier 7.

And the youth product is...

Ugo Conversano - I think he's really good . I already signed him to a pro contract because MLS club New England Revolution (!!!) were interested in him after he signed his youth contract.

----

I'm also at a crosswords, as I can't figure out why I can't afford to keep McCallum and Matheson (stupid wage cap), so I can probably only keep one of them beyond this season. It normally wouldn't be a problem, but I'm playing a youth only challenge so it's a bit different....

Robert Stillo has been resigned to a new 5 year contract, until the end of 2025. He will receive $7,750 this season, with annual 5% wage increases.

Cordell Lumley has been resigned to a 5 year contract. He will earn $9,750 in the 2021 season, and have annual 10% wage increases.

Sasa McCallum has finally been resigned to a new 5 year contract. He was set to become a free agent at the end of the season. He will earn a base salary of $67,000 each season. There are no appearance fees or wage increases. Unnamed sources have said that McCallum was promised a 5 figure loyalty bonus, rumoured around $15,000, and his agent received a one time $15,000 payout after successful negotiations.

The remaining first teamers left to resign are Navin Simon and Angelo Carmelo Matheson. Manager Ricky Nakano has confirmed the signings of Stillo, Lumley, and McCallum, but has declined to comment on the progress of negotiations with Simon's and Matheson's agent, who also happen to share the same agent as Stillo and McCallum.

Conversano looks great, another Canadian superstar! Love how diverse the second nationalities are! I always love developing those from the lesser nations just to see how they can help out their national teams in the future.

Conversano does look promising. How are your youth facilities looking?

Still minimal...

Originally Posted by Scarman

Conversano looks great, another Canadian superstar! Love how diverse the second nationalities are! I always love developing those from the lesser nations just to see how they can help out their national teams in the future.

He's probably the most developed player I got in my time with Markham. And Canada is a diverse country, so there's a lot of second nationalities.

Still waiting for a Chinese Canadian to sign though. There's only one player who's willing to play for their second nationality than Canada, Navin Simon who wants to play for Jamaica. We had a lot of players called up for the Canadian U20s in their career, but none have made the jump to the senior team yet. They didn't really get capped though, because I kept withdrawing those players.

---

I also resigned Simon and Matheson to 3 year and 5 year contracts respectively. Simon was easy to resign, even though I hate him (too many yellow cards), but Matheson I didn't have extra wages to give him, so I had to bride the agent $30k to freeze his salary. So we now got the core of the team locked up long term, so the future is bright.

Congrats on locking up the team long term. SHould really help with your push towards the next level.

They all did really well this past season.

Originally Posted by SRL88

YP21 looks very good . Will be nice to see how he develops.

He's probably the most talented player to come out of Markham, since all year MLS clubs have wanted him!

Originally Posted by Raware

Oh dear. It looks to be bringing some half decent quality through though.

If they're decent enough prospects we can still develop them into good players. Like the past couple seasons, we put some youth players into first team roles and they excelled. Some of their attributes have improved nicely and they're consistent.

Niksa Cotic (YP 2018) - He's even behind Franks on the depth chart, so I don't know his future. I could sign him to a senior contract and then loan him out but we probably still won't use him at Markham.

Steve Franks (YP 2019) - He's developed well, but he's blocked at all the positions he can play in by Matheson/Conversano/Brown.

Ugo Conversano (YP 2021) - he played as CM most of the season, and was very solid in his rookie year. He's certainly someone who can play in the top tier.

Other notables:

Sasa McCallum - Another good season by McCallum. He requested a transfer because we didn't strengthen the squad with any signings (and I wasn't planning to sign any players ) so he requested a transfer. Nothing to worry though, as he's under contract to 2025...

Pedro Lopez - Another good season from Lopez. He's a reliable left back.

Fernando Di Pietro - He had a very good rookie season, and I was skeptical whether he would go through the infamous 'Sophomore Slump'. He didn't.

John Cain - He's surprisingly developing into a decent 'keeper, as attributes are being improved into double digits. He's not a liability, but we could use a developmental 'keeper soon. He's not going to steal games, but he can succeed with the talent around him.

Have a decent year hopefully. With no automatic relegation spots, I think we can stay in the NASL, but that's definitely dependent on whether we have Cavalluzzo, because without him, we actually didn't win a single game.

Are we going up the leagues too fast? I don't know, but I won't complain about winning...

We're starting to fill out the new stadium already, 2638 out of 2725 seated are filled on average...but not sure if we should use the money right now. For now, I will let the board decide on facilities or stadium expansion.

Almost at the top now! Has anyone been relegated from the MLS yet, or is it still the impossible task?

Nice stadium increase as well, always good to know that you'll have a bit more money flowing into the club.

Yup, tier 2 now! Want to establish myself in the NASL first though, because although some players are good in the division (mainly the 5 star players), we need some depth, and we need absolutely everyone at their best to get a good spot. $4 million, or what I got for getting 1st this season, equates to a 16th place finish in the NASL, so I think that's a good target to try and stay over.

Portland had a couple close calls against Orlando City and FC Buffalo, but they managed to win on away goals against Orlando and defeated Buffalo 4-3 on aggregate. Markham might make history down the road if any of the original 20 clubs are worried.

The stadium expansion is nice but we're still near the bottom in terms of attendance (although we were at like 97 or 98% capacity every game!). It's not something I'm too worried about because we had the lowest attendances and lowest player salaries in more of less every division we played in but I want to improve facilities soon.

2022 pre-season might be interesting. I want to test myself against the best to see how can we handle the NASL level...

The Marauders have resigned Fernando Di Pietro to a 5 year contract until the end of 2026. He will earn a pro-rated $14,250 for the rest of the year, and have 10% annual increases. "We felt that there was going to be some interest in Di Pietro because of the two fantastic seasons he had at the club, and we felt comfortable giving him a full-time contract so he can continue to develop with us for at least the next 5 years."

Congrats on promotion! You're now in the league with the club from my hometown, FC Edmonton. Don't know much about that as I live in Vancouver and am a Whitecaps fan, but will be interesting to see you play them Haven't seen them pop up on any careers yet.

Congrats on promotion! You're now in the league with the club from my hometown, FC Edmonton. Don't know much about that as I live in Vancouver and am a Whitecaps fan, but will be interesting to see you play them Haven't seen them pop up on any careers yet.

Cheers cerud! Yes, FC Edmonton are in the division, and hopefully they'll be exciting games with Markham on top..

Originally Posted by SRL88

Great work getting promoted Rancer .

Cheers SRL88.

Originally Posted by Razer82

Congratulations on another promotion!

Give it a couple more seasons at most and you'll be the first side to relegate an MLS team.

Hopefully Razer! A bit worrying though that some players want to move to bigger clubs....

Darko Halilovic - He has decent MLS potential, which will be good. Managed to sign him to a youth contract. He can start at AML because our other ones aren't that good.

Daniel Shepherd - He didn't sign with us, opting to go for a $40,000+ a year contract with a club in Birmingham, Alabama. He could have replaced Simon.

The other annoying part is how the f*** (yes I'm pissed every bloody year that I lose youths) could they have signed him even though he had a hamstring injury after the Youth Candidates vs U18s match. Wouldn't he have failed his physical???

Oh and we're getting $8 million this year in TV revenue! Our money troubles will be a thing of the past!

That's a crazy number of cards! I don't think I've ever seen something like that.

Me neither. Our tactic does mean we get out of position sometimes so we make some mistimed tackles in the end and we get carded, but nothing this ridiculous. We're not a dirty team and I don't tell my players to tackle hard.

BREAKING NEWS: TORONTO FC HAVE BEEN RELEGATED FROM MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER

TORONTO - Fans of Toronto FC at BMO Field are noticeably frustrated after they earned the distinction of being the first original MLS club to be relegated to the 2nd-tier North American Soccer League (NASL). Toronto's premier soccer team have lost to FC Buffalo, the 2022 NASL Champions, to a 3-2 aggregate scoreline. Having drawn the first leg at the City of Light Soccer Park in Buffalo 1-1, players and fans alike were looking at an advantage at BMO Field back in Toronto where they would have an advantage and win to retain their MLS membership. However, FC Buffalo tallied the first goal in the 48th minute, before TFC tied the game 14 minutes later. Another 1-1 draw meant the game was going to go into extra time, and penalty kicks if necessary. Unfortunately for the Reds, Buffalo scored a goal in the 105th minute and hung on for the 2-1 victory, making history in the process.

It's hard to believe that a big club such as Toronto FC would suffer the fate of becoming the first MLS club to get relegated from the top flight in the history of American soccer, but there's a reason why MLS Cup Championships, and likewise the MLS/NASL playoffs, are played on the pitch. Players and fans were visibly distraught after the final whistle blew, and while the Buffalo players were celebrating the historic achievement, the home team was booed off the pitch.

Afterwards, the manager and the players braved the barrage of questions afterwards about the match.

"We had a really bad season overall," manager Didier Deschamps, who replaced the sacked Ben Olsen in mid-May, told the local media, "there really was no excuse for us to be in this position to be in the MLS relegation playoff in the first place. We had the talent. We had the resources from upper management. A lot of things didn't work out for us and now we're at rock bottom. Relegation is a terrible feeling and I have no words to describe it."

"I really feel bad for the loyal Toronto fans," a solemn captain Michael Ndiovu said, "this city wants to cheer for a winner, but all we gave them was a disappointing season and this loss at home. I firmly believe we are an MLS team, but of course, the results have said we are not. Give Buffalo some credit here. They were huge underdogs since a MLS club haven't been relegated before. They played us tough over the two legs. You don't just get two fluky wins at this stage of the competition."

As a local reporter for the Toronto Sun asked whether his plans for next year would include playing for Toronto FC in the 2nd tier NASL, Ndiovu sidestepped the question, "I don't think it's the right time to discuss something like that. One thing though is that I love playing in Toronto and I love the city. Right now, it really hurts. I'm not thinking about next year right now. What has just happened today hasn't sunk in yet, and the off-season will be very tough on all the players, including myself, as well the coaches, the owners, and the fans."

As for Buffalo, the managers and players couldn't have been more excited. Manager Michel Vork on the victory: "The players and fans are ecstatic about the performance today. As you know, Toronto and Buffalo have a little hockey rivalry, and the fans really got involved in the games and were cheering on us to beat Toronto. Toronto FC are a great team and a class organization from top to bottom. Beating them over two tough legs was no easy task. I thought in the first leg we did a very good job limiting the damage that Toronto could have caused, and we came into this match looking to win, and win we did."

When news spread that FC Edmonton defeated the Markham Marauders in the other Semi-Final, Vork gave his brief scouting report. "The Markham Marauders were the highest scoring team in the league this season, and for FC Edmonton to contain their star players is a testament to the FC Edmonton manager for his strategy and tactics. We may have defeated Toronto FC, but we are not in MLS yet. We have two legs with a very tough FC Edmonton team. We each won one league in the two meetings against each other, so I expect it to a very evenly matched aggregate series. With a spot in MLS next season on the line, both teams will be giving it their all. We can celebrate tonight, but afterwards its back to training and watching video to see how we can play FC Edmonton."

Well, I guess on current form that is what would happen in real life if the MLS/NASL were structured like this. Shame as I have a soft spot for TFC as you know from my FM10 career

TFC were midtable a couple seasons before this happened. I would have thought other teams would have been relegated first. Portland was at the bottom the last couple seasons in 2020 and 2021, and they were so close from getting relegated.

Originally Posted by Razer82

Great to see a team finally replace a side in MLS, shame it wasn't you though.

The FC Edmonton playoff clearly showed we weren't ready, which I would say is a good thing. We wouldn't compete in MLS and we need more seasoning in the NASL. We also need to sign youth players and avoid them getting poached.

Originally Posted by deltablue

Spain are rather notable absentees.

Shocking how poor they were. They're hosting Euro 2024 so at least they won't be absent from that! At least in person at least. This team lost to the likes of Slovenia and Bulgaria in WCQ, and lost 4-0 to Israel in a friendly.

Standings | Past Positions | Fixtures | Promotion Semi Final Leg 1Semi Final Leg 2 - Overall, a really great season. Once I got into the playoffs, I did want to win it and wasn't going to throw it away even though we definitely weren't ready for the big time MLS. Unfortunately, we tried our best but still got played off the pitch by FC Edmonton, who were defeated by FC Buffalo in the Final in the one of the most expensive game in North America with the amount of money at stake.

North American Open Cup - lost 5-2 to the San Jose Earthquakes in the First Round (we entered from the First Round). Unlucky draw and this was probably a better indicator that we needed some better players to compete.

NASL Cup - lost to America USA in the Second Round, which was the first round we entered. Didn't lose any sleep over this, I wanted to beat them in the league for 3 points, not in a cup competition.

Ontario Cup - defeated Belleville in the Qualifying Round before losing to fellow NASL outfit Serbian White Eagles in the first round proper. I've never done well here and last thing I want is a fixture congestion near the end of the season.

Transfers - Finally released YP2015 Brian Hussein. Hopefully he can stay in football and find a new club eventually.

Squad - A strong starting XI, but not much to show for on the bench. Depth is a problem.

Now that I think we can compete (if we're at full strength), it's time to see how far we can go. With Toronto FC getting relegated to the NASL, it's a good test for us to see how we manage against a quality opponent like them. You don't stay over 10 years in MLS by mistake. FC Edmonton really beat us easily over 2 legs, and our main weakness was always depth, so hopefully some new youth players can help us in that regard

Keep improving those training facilities, because we definitely won't be improving youth ones at this rate....

We need youth players that we can sign and not get poached! Anyone is fine, just don't sign with another club if I want you!

Your correct in your Assessment,another season in NASL will probably do you more good as it gives the players more time to develop.

We probably need more than one additional season, but most of the key players are already developed. I just need players who can push the current players so I got different options in case of injury. We had some key injuries over the course of the previous season and we did alright, but we're unfortunately very low on depth. I probably made a mistake only trying to attempt to sign 2 players (and successfully signing one), so I hope I can sign a lot more in the next intake.

Also have to somehow get the core to new long term contracts. I have to make them an 'amazing' offer...

I know that feeling, I start to get bored with the youth rules at the start of pretty much every season when I see how much I want to strengthen my team Hopefully you'll get the motivation to come back to this some day, it was a good read.